Brotherhood of Steel
The Tunnel Snakes is a company of treasure hunters and swords-for-hire active on the large island of Yuessa, northwest of the Tyrian Empire. The company has had considerable turnover since its founding, with a large number of former members buried (when possible). The current list of members can be seen on the Tunnel Snakes Roster; its current primary stakeholders are: * Viggo Hellstorm, Barbarian, the only surviving company founder, who has an uncanny knack for making money from sources that others overlook, and who wears a necklace made of genitalia from beastmen he has slain. His keen pike and swiftness of foot have kept him hale despite being the rashest of the stakeholders. An ardent royalist, Viggo has been discreetly recruiting and preparing members of the Cavern's local populace into a militia for revolt against their lord, and plans to install a replacement loyal to the Golden King (and grateful to the Tunnel Snakes). * Forrest, Barbarian, a man simple of mind and tongue, but who in combat is a terrifying force diving into the thickest part of the melee. His deepest wish is to learn to use magic; to this end he has tried a number of different measures, from ponderously studying the trappings of magic to eating the brains of a slain mage apprentice until stopped by his horrified comrades. Thus far those efforts have remained unsuccessful, though the company's discovery of the book Fantastic Creatures and How to Fry Them has given him renewed hope. * Lareth, Elven Knight, a shrewd and subtle elf, trained in both martial and dark magical arts. He is a formidable combatant, but his greatest asset is his finely-tuned sense of discretion, making him the company's voice of reason. Lareth is coldly calculating, focused on increasing his power and influence with the least amount of personal risk. When his right arm was severed at the elbow, he transformed the limb into a crawling claw and bound it as his familiar, rather than risk trying to get the limb reattached at a Lawful temple in town. * Barlamus, Fighter, a former pirate who, perhaps ironically, got a limp in his initial foray with the Tunnel Snakes. A cousin of the antipaladin company founder Agmadus and of the berserker Baxter the Red, along with his fallen cousins' wealth he inherited his family's famously bad fortune. Despite this, he is a capable fighter who fights fearlessly, leaving a trail of broken weapons behind him--some would even say it is as though he had a deathwish. * Vinny, Cleric, a prophet of the sands, a worshipper of the frog god Wastri. Seemingly something of a distracted madman, he hears a multitude of voices from various spirits who alternately give him glimpses at the future and tell him what to do. He wandered in from the desert when the company was plundering the Shaper-King's tower; with his healing magic and cheerful demeanor he was immediately and warmly received into the company's membership. The Tunnel Snakes' main focus has been the exploration and looting of the Caverns of Thracia. They have pulled great wealth from its dark tunnels: ancient magical armor, scrolls of magical spells, the sphere powering the caverns' teleporters, gnoll captives sold into slavery, a vast amount of bat guano sold as fertilizer, and other treasures. In their explorations, the company has put to the sword many of the beastmen, tribesmen, and other creatures within the caverns--though not without significant losses of their own, with the survivors learning discretion the hard way. The Tunnel Snakes paused their exploration of the Caverns to plunder the tower of Shaun the Shaper-King, a powerful transmogrifier mage. Tipped off about the Shaper-King's recent imprisonment in a stasis circle, the company retrieved a magical telescope as payment to the local mage who informed them, taking potent spellbooks and other valuables from the tower for themselves in the process. The company quickly moved through the tower with caution and professionalism, with most of their number heavily wounded to the traps and escaped creatures within but only a single man lost. Returning to the Caverns of Thracia, the Tunnel Snakes found its entrance fortified by another band of sellswords who had made obtained favor with the local lord. Rather than contest the other company's presence at the site (for now), the Tunnel Snakes have followed a looted treasure map to a new set of caverns said to hold a powerful weapon within their depths, and already have slain a large number of gnolls within for a large bounty. Category:Tunnel Snakes Category:Intro Pages